On the Edge of Chaos
by SongsofPsyche1945
Summary: The daughter of Ian Malcolm travels Isla Sorna with Dr. Dodgson. Will she discover the truth about the island and her boss's intentions before it's too late? Bookcentric OC/Howard King. Rated T for language, mentions of non-con and violence.
1. Chapter 1

This is something I have been working on for a while. It follows the book, not the movie. Enjoy!

888

Lucy Malcolm stared out into the grey ocean and sighed, when her boss told her Costa Rica she envisioned blue skies, turquoise waters, Pina coladas and white beaches. Not sweaty fishermen, grey skies and rain. She turned around to look for Dr. King, and just saw his head duck into the cabin of the boat. He never liked being around this many people, he never had. She watched as Dr. Baselton ordered the fishermen around in Spanish, gesturing wildly at the equipment being loaded and shouting at them to be careful. She then turned her attention to Dr. Dodgson, who appeared to be talking to another woman—one Lucy had not met yet-, he then pointed to Lucy and waved her over.

"This is one of my grad students, Lucy Malcolm. Luce, this is Dr. Harding—she's a friend of Levine's. She's heading out to the island too and I have offered her a lift over."

Lucy felt her heart skip a beat. This was Dr. Harding, the Dr. Sarah Harding who was probably the most progressive animal behaviorists of this century. Lucy was a grad student—she was about 2 years away from finishing her doctorate on evolutionary theory and she had read almost every paper Harding had written. Harding had known her father—Ian Malcolm—he had been one of her thesis readers. Lucy felt her chest tingle at the thought that this woman had known her father, had worked with him, spoken to him. Lucy on the on the other hand barely remembered him

"It's wonderful to meet you, Dr. Harding." She said, extending her hand.

Dr. Harding smiled, "You can call me Sarah." She said, but did not return the handshake.

"Malcolm? You wouldn't be related to Ian Malcolm, would you?" Sarah asked

"He's my father, but I wouldn't know him. He left when I was 5." Lucy replied, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

Sarah nodded as if she heard this information every day.

"Well, it's good to meet another Malcolm. Excuse me." She said, and then she stepped away from Lucy and started talking to Dodgson about the trip.

Lucy shrugged, and then decided to walk on board and find Dr. King—her lab partner and friend. They had both started working for Dr. Dodgson at the same time, and back at Biosyn they managed a small team of interns together. Dr. Howard King would always be a mystery to her—he was tall, young and very handsome—but he also had a dark past, one that he refused to talk about, actually he refused to talk at all. She knew Dodgson was starting to get frustrated with King's silence, but she had no idea why. King would sometimes talk to her, if they were alone and if he was in the right mood but that was rare.

Lucy boarded the ship and walked past the strapped down red Jeep Wrangler that held most of their field equipment, then turned to the left and walked down the narrow stairs that went into the ship's cabin. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of fish and mildew, but continued through the small cabin until she found Dr. King sitting on one of the beds and working on his iPad.

"Hey" she said

He jumped slightly, but then looked up at her and smiled.

"It's pretty busy up there. I haven't heard Dr. Dodgson yell like that since that incident with Boris in the lab." She commented, pointing to the ceiling.

Dr. King smiled and nodded, but he still looked nervous.

"The only good thing about that incident was that the fire seared off Boris's unibrow. He looked way less creepy with no eyebrows than he did with that one unibrow."

They both looked up as they heard the captain's orders to launch, and then they felt the boat's motor start with a low rumble.

"I guess we're headed off. Oh wow, I can really feel the motion down here. I think I'm going to head up. I've never done well with boats. Want to join me?" she asked

Dr. King shook his head, and then pointed to his laptop.

"You've got some work to finish up?"

A nod.

"Alright. Come up when you're done, okay?"

Another nod.

Lucy turned around and went back up the stairs, feeling slightly disheartened that King didn't come up with her. No one knew, but she had a bit of a crush on Dr. King. And no one could know, for many reasons; they were coworkers, he was older than her (only by 6 years…but still), and the list went on and on. She still remembered the first time she met him in Dodgson's lab the day she had been hired. She had been so nervous and became even more so when Dodgson and pulled her into his office;

"I just wanted a word with you about your associate, Dr. King." He had said

"Sure."

"He's been through a lot, and I just wanted to let you know that he's struggling with PTSD—post traumatic stress disorder—and it might take him a while to adjust to the new lab and the new interns and you. I'm not supposed to disclose anything personal—he'll have to tell you himself what happened—but that's part of the reason I asked you in here. Howard—Dr. King—is or has been mute."

"Mute? As in?"

"He hasn't said a single word in 3 months, not since The Incident."

"Okay…"

I'm trying to make him as comfortable as possible, hopefully he'll start talking again but until then let's just take it one day at a time. Okay?"

"Okay. Is there anything I can do?" she had asked

"Just be there for him."

And she had been. That day at lunch she noticed that he was sitting by himself, so she sat with him. This was the start of their routine, and everyday after that they sat together, read and ate lunch in silence.

"Lucy!"

Lucy was brought out her memory by Dr. Dodgson, who was walking over to her on unsteady land legs.

"How you holding up? I know boats aren't your thing." He asked

"I'm doing okay so far. I might join Dr. King downstairs in a bit though. The seas are really rough. How much longer?"

"Maybe another twenty minutes, we are very close to the island."

"Really?"

"Yeah, look." He pulled her over to the railing and pointed to a dark mass that had popped up at an alarming rate on the horizon. They were a lot closer than Lucy realized.

"That's Isla Sorna."

"It's so big."

"Yup. Oh! Dr. Harding, pleasure for you to join us."

He smiled as Dr. Harding approached them, looking slightly green.

"Is that the island?" she asked

"Yup, we're making great time."

"That's good." She answered

"Lucy, why don't you go join Dr. King for a bit. I have to talk to Dr. Harding about a few things."

"Okay"

Lucy turned away from the pair and started heading back towards the stairs. As she was walking, she bumped right into Dr. King.

Oh. Hi. Feeling better? How was-?"

But Lucy never finished her question, she paused as King suddenly grabbed her arm and she watched King's face go pale, his eyes fixed on something behind her

"What's…?"

She turned around just in time to see Dr. Dodgson push Harding over the rail as the boat once again dipped down with the roll of the sea. Harding was visible for a moment, and then she disappeared off the railing and into the ocean.

"Oh my god."

King's fingers tightened around her arm, and he looked at her, eyes frantic.

"Did you see that?" he whispered

Lucy nodded, and tried to repress all the emotions she was feeling; horror (did Dr. Dodgson just murder someone?), seasickness (when were they going to land anyway?) and confusion (what the hell was happening?).

"What are we going to do?"

He shook his head and let go over her arm. She could see that his hands were shaking.

Dr. Dodgson saw them and waved cheerfully, like nothing had ever happened.

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Hope you enjoyed it! More will be up tomorrow. Please leave me a review and let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Lucy watched as King balled his hands into fists, and then strode over to Dodgson, who smiled at him like what was happening was normal.

"What did you just do?" King asked

Dodgson feigned surprise, "Excuse me? What did you say?"

"I saw you…you..pushed her in! We have to look for her!" King said, and then he made a motion to look over the railing but Dodgson grabbed his arm roughly and pushed him against it. He used one hand to grip King's throat, and the other to twist his arm back.

"Ah-."

"Now you listen here, you stupid son of a bitch. Unless you want to go down just like my dear friend Sarah, you better keep your mouth shut, like you always do. You want to know why I hired you? You of all people, not because I felt sorry for you—which I did—but because I knew you were so scared and fucked up that you would do anything I said. Now you-."

"Stop it! You're hurting him! Let him go!" Lucy shouted, running towards them. Dodgson turned around, to her, with a look she had never seen before.

"Don't you dare tell me what to do. I can do whatever the hell I want. Besides, no one would miss this sorry excuse for a man even if I did throw him overboard." Dodgson sneered, eyes glinting fiercely, and then he flipped King around, pinning one arm behind his back.

Lucy stared at Dodgson. This was a side of him that she hadn't seen before, and she didn't like it.

"Your wrong." she said, doing her best to stop her voice from shaking.

"Am I? Has he told you—well of course he hasn't—about the reason he left Stanford?" he asked, his eyes bulging.

"Please…." King pleaded, but was silenced when Dodgson twisted his arm hard, threatening to break it.

Lucy shook her head silently.

"He was raped. And he was too much of coward to face them anymore so the 'wittle baby ran away., Isn't that right, Howard?" Dodgson sneered

"Please, stop. Lucy, I never...I-."

"Oh shut up, Howard." Dodgson let go of his arm and thrust him away from him.

Dodgson walked over to Lucy, who in turn backed away from him.

"If you tell anyone about Sarah Harding, you are fired." He told her. And then he strode away.

Lucy stared at King, who refused to meet her eye, who looked pale in the dim light "I-I have to go." He whispered, and then he walked as quickly as the rocking boat would let him back down into the cabin.

Lucy felt shell shocked. What the hell just happened? Did Dodgson- her friendly, always positive boss-just murder someone? She remembered back when she had been offered the position at Biosyn, several of her professors had warned her about associating with Lewis Dodgson that he was vicious, even deceiving. But he had seemed so charming, so willing to help her that she had ignored those warnings. She now desperately wished she had listened to those warning. She suddenly felt very, very alone on this little boat in the middle of nowhere.

She clutched the railing as the boat dipped dangerously in the water. They were heading towards a large cave now. She felt frozen in place, a sudden sense of foreboding falling over her. She closed her eyes, and took a couple of deep breaths. If Dodgson had really shown his true colors, shown that he was the deceiving double crossing bastard that she had been warned about then she needed to keep her head if she wanted to survive this trip. Harding had obviously seen through his façade and that's why he had tossed her overboard. King had tried to call him out on it, and he had almost killed him too. So...her plan was to act like the last 15 minutes never happened. She would be the sweet, enthusiastic unaware grad student she always was and play his little game. Then when they got back to California, she would go straight to the CEO of Biosyn and come clean. It wasn't a great plan, but it was the only one she could think of that didn't involve Dodgson killing her too.

Her eyes flashed open. What was she going to do with Dr. King? In her mind's eye she replayed what happened, the look of fear on his face, the way Dodsgon had sneered at him, the way he shouted his secret out loud so the whole boat could hear. She turned around, keeping one hand on the rail and scanned the boat for King. He was nowhere in sight. Taking another deep breath, she let go of the rail and started walking towards the cabin, where she was sure Dr. King was.

Dr. King was sitting where he was before, sitting on the one of the seats with his head in his hands. His face was pale, and she could see his entire body trembling.

"Dr. King?" She asked hesitantly

He jumped at her voice, and looked up at her.

"Are you alright?" She asked

He shrugged his shoulders.

She took a step down, and winced as he flinched again.

" What Dodgson said-." She started, but was cut off by King shaking his head. The boat lurched and she stumbled a little on the stairs. Quickly, she lowered herself and sat down.

"He shouldn't have said it." She said quietly.

"Ashley told me about Mike Johnson." She added

King's head shot up, and he sent her a look you knew?

" I should have said something earlier, I'm sorry. But I...I didn't want to bring it up if you didn't want to so I was waiting."

There was a tense silence.

"It wasn't your fault. Don't let what happened in the past define you." She said quietly.

There was more commotion on deck now. She could hear the others shouting. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and the boat came to a jolting stop.

"Lucy! Lucy! Howard?" Dodgson's voice made them both jump. He appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Come on, we're here." He said, motioning for them to come. The dark glint in his eyes was gone, he seemed excitedly like their were about to discover something amazing.

"It's time to get to work." He said, and then he waited until Lucy was standing. He offered her his hand and smiled.

"Let's go."


End file.
